Thursday, March 20, 2008
Girlfriends
Shannon wanted to go to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and she took me and Karen along. We had a great time. I hope I wasn't too tour-guidish for them, but they said that's what they wanted. Karen showed off all the knowledge she gained in Humanities 122, which made me feel like a proud teacher. Then we went to dinner on the plaza. It's so nice to have girlfriends.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The ABC's
Thanks Paige and Peter!
JOLEE:
A - Attached or single: Attached
B - Best Friends: Jill, Nicole, Nate, Paige, Abby, and Karen (I earned that last one)
C - Cake or Pie: Chocolate Chip Cookies (that’s three C’s) made by Jill or with the family recipe.
D - Day of choice: February 19th, Copernicus’ Birthday
E - Essential item(s): Books, IPod, laptop, the library, the internet
F - Favorite Movie: Singin' in the Rain and Pride and Prejudice
G - Gummy bears or worms: bears
H - Hometown: Colorado Springs, CO
I - Indulgences: Books on tape, High School Musical soundtrack
J - January or July: July is my birthday month but it’s too hot in Kansas in July.
K - Kids: not yet
L - Life is not complete without: laughter
M - Marriage Date: February 26th, 2005
N - Number of Siblings: 2
O - Oranges or apples: depends on what looks good – bad apples and bad oranges are both equally disgusting
P - Phobias or fears: heights and jumping from them, going too fast downhill, layovers, old food, pro-wrestling, being hungry (Nate wrote this list. Apparently he thinks I’m afraid of a lot of things.)
Q - Quotes: “Be grateful you’re not in the forest in France/ where the average young person just hasn’t a chance/ to escape from the perilous pants eating plants/ but your pants are safe, you’re a fortunate guy/ you ought to be shouting how lucky am I” – Dr. Seuss
R - Reason to smile: Zephyr, blogs, inside jokes
S - Season: Fall and Spring
T - Tag two friends: Katie and Katie
U - Unknown fact about me: I love to be at home.
V - Very favorite store: Gap
W - Worst habit: I usually have to listen to my IPod in order to fall asleep
X - X-ray or Ultrasound: X-Ray
Y - Your favorite food: Taco dip, good pasta
Z - Zodiac: Cancer
A - Attached or single: Attached
B - Best Friends: Toby, Aaron, Chad, JoLee
C - Cake or Pie: Chocolate Cake and Mom’s Apple Pie
D - Day of choice: Saturday
E - Essential item(s): toothpick
G - Gummy bears or worms: worms
F - Favorite Movie: Chariots of Fire
H - Hometown: Sacramento, CA
I - Indulgences: Potato Chips, Star Trek
J - January or July: July
K - Kids: not yet
L - Life is not complete without: JoLee
M - Marriage Date: February 26th, 2005
N - Number of Siblings: 2
O - Oranges or apples: oranges, if they are pre-peeled
P - Phobias or fears: being buried alive
Q - Quotes: "This corn is an angel." - Dan in Real Life
R - Reason to smile: Mr. Monk, JoLee, a trumpet played well
S - Season: Summer
T - Tag two friends: what she said.
U - Unknown fact about me: I’ve been hit by at least 7 cars. Well, that I can remember…
V - Very favorite store: 7-11 (age 5-12), Computer World (age 12-16), REI (age 16-25), Cost-co (age 26+)
W - Worst habit: Staying up too late.
X - X-ray or Ultrasound: X-Ray but MRIs are the coolest
Y - Your favorite food: Tostadas
Z - Zodiac: Pisces
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Stick Figures
When I was in high school stick figures were all the rage. Jessica recently reminded me of our love for stickmen. I give you one of my stick figure masterpieces. It contains all the classic elements of a stick figure drawing, including the exchange between the guy with the bagel and the guy with the orange, Mr. Clark with his stopwatch, and the guy with the really long neck wearing a turtleneck. Enjoy. (A side note, I made this particular drawing back in 1997 while I was "taking" notes during General Conference.)
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Kansas City Auto Show
This post is dedicated to all those guys (all three of you) who read this blog and wonder when we're going to post something more manly than the pet cat playing with her latest toy.
This morning I went on my first visit to the annual Kansas City Auto Show in Bartle Hall at the convention center. There were a few concept cars, but mostly the show was about displaying the 2008 models. I've included a few highlights below. I took my camera, but I left the battery at home, so this post relies on images taken from the internet. (I also left my wife at home, because she is preparing for Murphy Madness, which starts this week.)
Bartle Hall: The convention center is an impressive structure that is built over the freeway. There are four "smoke stacks" that use cables to hold up the roof. The interior is larger than eight football fields. This year, the Kansas City Auto Show displayed over 500 cars from 40 different car makers.
Cheapest: The cheapest car on the floor was this Chevy Aveo that has an MSRP of just over $10k. Ten thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money until you find out what it will buy at a new car dealer.
Most Expensive: The most expensive car that I could find was this Cayenne Turbo. It listed for $105k. That much money would buy a whole fleet of 1986 Volkswagen Golfs (we originally paid $1k dollars for the Golf). I guess an SUV like this would get your kids to soccer practice really fast, because it pumps out 500hp. It made the enormous, fully loaded Suburban look like a relative bargain at $60k.
Lamest: The lamest car by far was this Zenn (Zero Emissions No Noise) vehicle. I'm a huge supporter of all-electric vehicles, but this thing has a range of 35 miles and a top speed of 25 mph. With this car, I wouldn't be able to turn onto our front street without getting eaten alive. I don't know who would pay the $12k they are asking for this souped up golf cart.
Most Sat In: While far too small for my comfort, I think the Smart Car shows promise. I like the idea of a fuel efficient, inexpensive car. This car was so popular at the show people actually stood in lines so they could sit inside.
Most Likely to Be Owned by Toby: The Jeep Hurricane was awesome to behold. It looked wildly out of place next to the other SUVs. It comes with four-wheel independent steering that creates a turn radius of zero. There are no doors and the body is largely made of carbon fiber. If I could have taken one vehicle out for a spin today, this probably would have been it.
This morning I went on my first visit to the annual Kansas City Auto Show in Bartle Hall at the convention center. There were a few concept cars, but mostly the show was about displaying the 2008 models. I've included a few highlights below. I took my camera, but I left the battery at home, so this post relies on images taken from the internet. (I also left my wife at home, because she is preparing for Murphy Madness, which starts this week.)
Bartle Hall: The convention center is an impressive structure that is built over the freeway. There are four "smoke stacks" that use cables to hold up the roof. The interior is larger than eight football fields. This year, the Kansas City Auto Show displayed over 500 cars from 40 different car makers.
Cheapest: The cheapest car on the floor was this Chevy Aveo that has an MSRP of just over $10k. Ten thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money until you find out what it will buy at a new car dealer.
Most Expensive: The most expensive car that I could find was this Cayenne Turbo. It listed for $105k. That much money would buy a whole fleet of 1986 Volkswagen Golfs (we originally paid $1k dollars for the Golf). I guess an SUV like this would get your kids to soccer practice really fast, because it pumps out 500hp. It made the enormous, fully loaded Suburban look like a relative bargain at $60k.
Lamest: The lamest car by far was this Zenn (Zero Emissions No Noise) vehicle. I'm a huge supporter of all-electric vehicles, but this thing has a range of 35 miles and a top speed of 25 mph. With this car, I wouldn't be able to turn onto our front street without getting eaten alive. I don't know who would pay the $12k they are asking for this souped up golf cart.
Most Sat In: While far too small for my comfort, I think the Smart Car shows promise. I like the idea of a fuel efficient, inexpensive car. This car was so popular at the show people actually stood in lines so they could sit inside.
Most Likely to Be Owned by Toby: The Jeep Hurricane was awesome to behold. It looked wildly out of place next to the other SUVs. It comes with four-wheel independent steering that creates a turn radius of zero. There are no doors and the body is largely made of carbon fiber. If I could have taken one vehicle out for a spin today, this probably would have been it.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Stuck in Wichita
JoLee is writing a paper this semester on Paul Meltsner's painting, Martha Graham Dance Class (c.a. 1939). She wanted to see the painting in person, so we trucked down to the Wichita Art Museum yesterday morning. Wichita is a three hour drive, so we intended to return last night; however, our car's alternator broke and we ended up stranded in the middle of Kansas with no bags! With the help of the Honda dealership that happened to be on our way into town, we were able to contact a mechanic and find a hotel before it got too late. The hotel supplied us with a toothbrush and toothpaste, and we found food and a bookstore at the strip mall across the street. We were very fortunate to have everything we needed within walking distance. In the morning, the mechanic fixed our car in less than three hours and we were back on the road. With the exception of a costly repair, we both enjoyed our little adventure in Wichita.
JoLee spent an hour observing this painting and taking notes. She set up a few folding chairs for us to be comfortable. I highly recommend touring art museums with art history majors. It makes you feel like you know what you're doing.
I know not all art is beautiful, but I thought this painting was. The colors and the forms and the subject matter (i.e. modern dance) make this painting wonderful to look at.
After the art museum, we visited the Exploration Place (which is somewhat similar to the Exploritorium in San Francisco). Wichita has a rich flight history, so a big portion of the museum was dedicated to aeronautics. Here I am trying to fly the Wright Brothers' plane at Kitty Hawk. I'm pleased to say that I crashed spectacularly.
The nature section of the Exploration Place had this exhibit of a decomposing rat being consumed by maggots and a giant slug. This one's for you, Blake!
The drive between Kansas City and Wichita is spectacularly beautiful in my opinion. It takes you through the flint hills, which is some of the only tall prairie grass left in the world. What makes the flint hills so unique is the lack of trees. Under a thin layer of soil lies solid rock, making the flint hills useless for farming but excellent for grazing. In the winter time it's a little bare, but come springtime it will be miles and miles of rolling green grass. This drive should be beautiful when Jen and I drive it in June, but I'd argue that it's beautiful even in the winter.
We had incredibly powerful winds on both legs of our journey. A storm was rolling in as we drove home, but we were lucky to arrive before it started to rain.
The last time a car broke when I was on a road trip was in Salt Lake City. My dad got our family a hotel room downtown and we all went swimming with our friends in the hotel pool. Unfortunately, we didn't have our swimsuits in Wichita, but we still had fun.
JoLee spent an hour observing this painting and taking notes. She set up a few folding chairs for us to be comfortable. I highly recommend touring art museums with art history majors. It makes you feel like you know what you're doing.
I know not all art is beautiful, but I thought this painting was. The colors and the forms and the subject matter (i.e. modern dance) make this painting wonderful to look at.
After the art museum, we visited the Exploration Place (which is somewhat similar to the Exploritorium in San Francisco). Wichita has a rich flight history, so a big portion of the museum was dedicated to aeronautics. Here I am trying to fly the Wright Brothers' plane at Kitty Hawk. I'm pleased to say that I crashed spectacularly.
The nature section of the Exploration Place had this exhibit of a decomposing rat being consumed by maggots and a giant slug. This one's for you, Blake!
The drive between Kansas City and Wichita is spectacularly beautiful in my opinion. It takes you through the flint hills, which is some of the only tall prairie grass left in the world. What makes the flint hills so unique is the lack of trees. Under a thin layer of soil lies solid rock, making the flint hills useless for farming but excellent for grazing. In the winter time it's a little bare, but come springtime it will be miles and miles of rolling green grass. This drive should be beautiful when Jen and I drive it in June, but I'd argue that it's beautiful even in the winter.
We had incredibly powerful winds on both legs of our journey. A storm was rolling in as we drove home, but we were lucky to arrive before it started to rain.The last time a car broke when I was on a road trip was in Salt Lake City. My dad got our family a hotel room downtown and we all went swimming with our friends in the hotel pool. Unfortunately, we didn't have our swimsuits in Wichita, but we still had fun.
Zephyr's Toy
Mom sent Zephyr some toys in the mail (despite the fact that Zephyr has been a very bad cat on our walks lately). As you can see from the video below she thoroughly enjoyed her present. Thanks, Mom!
A Plug For Google Reader
A few weeks ago, after watching my wife go through her regular routine of checking for new blog posts, I decided to hook her up with Google Reader. For those of you who already know or use a feed reader, you can skip this post; this will tell you nothing new. This post is for those of you who are checking a handful (or several handfuls) of blogs on a regular basis by going to each one hoping to find something new.
In simple terms,Google Reader consolidates blog posts (and any news posts) into one source. It's like reading a newspaper that is full of only stories that matter to you. It's incredibly easy to use. All you need is a Google account. Here is how Google Reader works.
1. Go to www.google.com/reader and sign into your account (or create an account if necessary).
2. Subscribe to a blog by entering its URL into the subscription window. Here I'm subscribing to this blog, joleeandnate.blogspot.com.
3. Read the latest posts within Blogger. You don't have to visit the blog to read read the latest posts, but if you decide you want to visit the blog simply click on the name at top and it will take you there.
4. Read about old post by scrolling down.
5. Subscribe to as many blogs as you want to and organize them into folders (technically they're tags). Notice that this menu will tell you how many new items there are to read in each blog. In this example the blogs are organized in two groups: the Jensens and the Walters. Notice that all of there are 38 new "Jensen" posts in all, "The Stephens" has no new items, and "A Flat and Two Cats" has 3 new posts.
A reader not only saves you time in checking multiple posts, it actually helps you find new posts more quickly. You can also share items with friends, star favorite items to be referenced later, and even access items on your mobile device. Finally, there are a few tools to show you how often you check your feeds and which ones you read the most.
In simple terms,Google Reader consolidates blog posts (and any news posts) into one source. It's like reading a newspaper that is full of only stories that matter to you. It's incredibly easy to use. All you need is a Google account. Here is how Google Reader works.
1. Go to www.google.com/reader and sign into your account (or create an account if necessary).
2. Subscribe to a blog by entering its URL into the subscription window. Here I'm subscribing to this blog, joleeandnate.blogspot.com.
3. Read the latest posts within Blogger. You don't have to visit the blog to read read the latest posts, but if you decide you want to visit the blog simply click on the name at top and it will take you there.
4. Read about old post by scrolling down.
5. Subscribe to as many blogs as you want to and organize them into folders (technically they're tags). Notice that this menu will tell you how many new items there are to read in each blog. In this example the blogs are organized in two groups: the Jensens and the Walters. Notice that all of there are 38 new "Jensen" posts in all, "The Stephens" has no new items, and "A Flat and Two Cats" has 3 new posts.A reader not only saves you time in checking multiple posts, it actually helps you find new posts more quickly. You can also share items with friends, star favorite items to be referenced later, and even access items on your mobile device. Finally, there are a few tools to show you how often you check your feeds and which ones you read the most.
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